March 11, 2005

"It's over it's over it's over" As I sit here in Samuel W. Brassington's clothes it feels as though a great weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Our 'Medea' practical assessment is complete!

We arrived at 9 o'clock this morning and I began minor alterations to the set as well as a general tidy up of the acting circle as it was covered in brick dust. After this we had to wait a moment or two for the chorus to finish with their makeup and so on before we could begin a run through and a tech. I took this moment to label the lighting desk as to which channel did what, this was because the other group had already set some channels up (although the didnt tell us which ones, we hope we didnt change anything) and I wanted to make sure those channels werent lit up accidently .

The first run through was more than satisfactory as it was our 1st ever run through. Some brief changes regarding positioning and lighting (as well as projector modifications) were made to add an extra level of shine to the whole thing. The problem with our performance is it relied heavily on audience positioning that was impossible to forsee so we knew some improvisations would have to be performed for the actual performance.

I feel I wasnt as helpful to the group as I could have been during the performance as I had the 'sheet thrower' job. It was nice to get a birds eye view of the whole thing but I feel I didn't pull my weight enough during the performance, although I hope my work on the film and the whole teching side of things will tilt the scales to neutral.

In the final minutes before the performance, everything (as usual) went wrong, one of the sheets on the top of the booths fell off so I got the ladder and made running repairs, at the excact same time, two of the chorus' masks broke so I ran to Kate's office to make last minute repairs, reulting in a staple all the way in my finger (yes it hurt, but the show must go on) but I pulled it out and ran to position.

The performance itself went very well, despite a few audience misplacements (i.e. Our own Geraldine Cousin standing too far forward and missing the whole shadow show) This however was an unforeseen planning error and nobody's fault in particular, the whole of the chorus and the chaperones Ian and Hannah C. Tovey did very well to recover the situation by moving the audience to where they wanted them to be. Apart from Ricardo's accidental dropping of the lens cap (onto a girl may I add, inkeeping with the whole piece) the whole thing ran smoothly and I feel it was a successful piece of theatre.

From this experience I learnt that it is possible to make theatre with a large group of people by breaking up into smaller groups. I was worried that the seperation would result in a cluttered and unorganised piece of theatre but this was far from the case. Can I thank everybody in the cast, it has been a complete pleasure. There has been a band amongst brothers (but not sisters as that wasnt the point of the piece) formed, and I'm proud with what we made.

Also a special thanks to Hugh Denard for the total creative freedom given to us, and also I would like to thank Nick and Sam (2nd year) for their help with the editing, without them we'd still be scratching our heads at the computer.

March 10, 2005

Tomorrow, we are perfoming at 12 and I think we're nearly sorted. We have a few hours tomorrow morning to get everything straight then we're done. We are yet to run the whole thing in sequence, but as our production isnt really a performance I dont see this as a problem We basically spent all of today setting everything up. We were in for the later session so we decided to set up the studio for tomorrows performance as we are performing 1st. We, however did not realise the other group were going to be coming back in at 1 and we feel this may have caused a bit of tension, but hopefully we are all adults and can simply see this as a break down in communications rather than an evil act of sabotage, we are all the same class afteral, and I hope nobody forgets this.

Anyway, during the time when the ther group were practicing, myself and ricardo decided we didnt need lunch (lunch is for girls ;) haha! inkeeping with our theme) and tried to somehow get Ian and Rhys' video onto a DVD with ours. Ian then joined us and despite a few foul ups we got it sorted.

After this we went back into the studio to finish setting it up, and it is VERY impressive (pictures below). It is nice to be given such creative freedom and freedom to resources. Something I feel we havent been given in the past with other aspects of practice work.

The other groups work is looking brilliant too and I am eagerly awaiting seeing it performed as I hope they are with ours

March 06, 2005

YES! It's finally done! After a 12 hour session with Ricardo in the editing suite on Thursday, not to mention my midnight-4.30 run at trying to get it to work on my computer, I finally sorted it at about 2 on Friday. I went into the editing suite at about 11.30 on Friday, making the amount of time I spent on editing the film (not including filming it) about 20 hours and judging by people's responses I think it was worth it. The 3 and a half minutes of video has made me and Ricardo very proud.

We went into the editing suite completely clueless as to how to use the avid editing machines and came out 12 hours later as semi-pros (thanks to help from Nick and Sam 2nd year mainly) I think myself and Ricardo created a band amongst brothers during that 12 hour stint and I believe(d) we were on the same wave length. However those dreams were shattered on Friday when Ricardo told me he believe the Coen brothers (my heroes) were "over-rated". All of that bonding on Thursday was gone.

Anyway. On Friday we had a big meeting with our group and allocated all the little jobs that needed to be done. The art-work and the masks are now looking awesome(pictured below) and the whole thing is really coming together nicely. I am excited and confident that we will have a successful piece of drama come Friday.

So here are some pictures from Thursday and Friday:

Ricardo hard at work:

Artwork 1:

Artwork 2:

Masks:

On a completely seperate note, my lovely camera XL2 will be coming on Saturday! SGORIO!

P.S It has been brought to my attention that I have failed to credit the rest of the film group: Roth, Sophie, Sarah and Zoe. This wasn't a delibrate scorning attempt more of a careless omission. Sorry, if I have offended anybody. I wasn't taking anything away from you all, I was just saying how proud myself and Ricardo were when it was finished. To quote the greatest thing ever made "this tragedy effects us all" hahaha! So to conclude: Sorry, I'm a forgetful fool :(

March 03, 2005

It's 20.30, i'm in the editing suite, and i've been here since 11.30! Myself and Ricardo have succesfully edited the film for our prac, but now things have gone…well I'm not going to dress it up, "tits up". It doesnt want to put its self in a format viewable on any exising media player, which is helpful.

I, in protest have eaten a candle and ricardo has resorted to…i dont know what to call it, basically hes balancing a chair on hishead and is doing pushing his head back and forth in an attempt to lose the "gullet" he thinks hes developed after looking at a photo on hanah clapham's blog.

I predict we will have to wait for Tim to come on tuesday until this will succesfully work, but in the meantime i feel an allnighter looks iminent.

March 01, 2005

Right, due to constant abuse from Ricardo about how much I talk about the new camcorder I'm going to be buying I decided to 'blog it' in an attempt to flush the plugging of it from my system.

Anyway. I currently own a Samsung VP-D20:

It is highly insufficiant and its one colour chip doesnt do it any favours. Don't get me wrong, it was a good first camera for me, but the one colour chip means that dealing with smokey or dark atmospheres results in a loss of focus or image, also colours come out bland and monotonous with it.

So, unsurprisingly, I decided it was time for an upgrade to this bad boy:
It is a Canon XL2, replacing the now aged Canon XL1s and XL1. It has 3 1/3" CCDs meaning its image is sharp and crystal clear and easily broadcast quality.

Now I can hear a lot of you camera-buffs asking why I dont get the new High Def Sony HDR FX1. Well I have to admit I was tempted, but the fact that High Def isn't compatible with about 80% of UK televisions and I can't really think of anything I'd like to shoot that would need to be in HD. And the DV recording on the FX1 is ever so slightly worse than that of the XL2. Basically I think that High Def is in too early a stage now for me to buy a camera that will easily be outdated and the HD-quality will be poor compared to the HD quality in the future, that's my prediction anyway.

So yes, I soon (probably over Easter, or maybe Summer) will be the proud owner of a Canon-XL2. I can't wait.

February 25, 2005

On Wednesday of this week, the film and performance group went out to film a test reel on my little 1CCD camcorder just to get a general idea of what locations would work and how.

This achieved several objectives. Mainly it enabled myself, Ricardo and Rothwell to story board the film project so that all we had to do Thursday was get the equipment [the departments very nice Panasonic DVX100 and 700 series Manfrotto tripod with if I'm not mistaken a 501 Manfrotto head] and just go out and film. We did this very succesfully and despite a few scenes we are done. We need to book studio time next week for the dialogue scenes and then next Thursday we will crack on with the editing on the very nice Avid Editing Machines they have in the dept's editing suite.

The group were a coherant and well oiled unit I felt during the filming process, I do feel however I may have been slightly over bearing as a cameraman as I have a passion and knowledge of camera operation. But I think everybody who wanted to had a chance to be involved in both technical and peformance aspects of the film making process. If I offended anybody in my group by 'taking control' I sincerely apologise.

Before we went out filming on thursday, we had a discussion about the possibilities of a Male Vs Female theme throughout our piece and both groups [male group and a female group] made up lists of things about the opposite sex that annoyed them. The results were both heated and interesting. And we strived to incorporate the finding into our film.

February 20, 2005

I'm saying sorry for the delay in posting this, but it was due to an unexpected error in accessing the Warwick Blog.

Anyhow, we began today's session with a whole group meeting in an attempt to give some direction to the whole project. This was due (in part) to growing worry that the different groups (within our group) will contradict each other. The general and deliberately vague theme we have chosen is Gender. The other choice was the Myth I have discussed in my last blog entry.

Film and Performance

Some of the separate groups within our groups are working directly with each other [I.E. The Film and Performance element]. It was decided that we wanted to contemporise the original play. This is to show a relevence between Medea (the play) and a modern day audience. One of the main ideas we wanted to use to depict this are transitions between Medea (the character) and Jason as well as any other characters. The way we play on doing this is by for example:

This does not apply exclusively to the characters I have mentioned. I also like the idea of simply using members of the public in an attempt to bring an element of relevance to the piece. The rough foundations for this idea came from a comparison to the videos played at Alton Towers whilst waiting to ride 'The Oblivion'. There is a video of a man speaking and then a brief flash and a different person replaces them.

Macro Shots and Chiascuro Lighting

Whilst discussing various ways of filming and mood we wanted to create, one common ground we kept returning to was the macro shots employed in Darren Aronofsky's Requiem For a Dream. For those of you who haven't seen the film or who aren't aware of what macro shots are, they are a series of short shots which represent a certain action that could take a long time. In Requiem For a Dream, the cinematographer Matthew Libatique uses a series of shorts to represent drug use (i.e. heroin boiling on a spoon, pupils dilating etc.) Matthew Libatique also incorporates very pronounced noises so that it is a very rhythmic experience. We are thinking of using this technique especially during the murder scenes that we will incorporate in the film.

We are also considering using a chiascuro lighting effect as used within the film noir genre. This is an effective tactic to show short snippets of light and action. This will hopefully be effective and helpful as we are working with a very small budget.

Location searching

Myself, Rothwell and Ricardo went location hunting after Friday's session, paying particular attention to the maths building and university house as both buildings have pillars but are both very modern. This in our opinion would be ideal for contemporising a Greek play as there is the suggestion of Greek society with the pillars however the structures are very modern.

The photos from the location search have been uploaded to my blog gallery entitled 'Locationgive me a few minutes to upload them though